This invention relates to weed control systems, and more particularly, to a weed suppression and weed preventive strip to be positioned in a desired location in a garden.
Weeds are unwanted in a garden as they take up space; compete for nutrient resources with the desired plants; and add unwanted, typically rundown, look to the garden. As an artist dealing with living organisms, a gardener must balance the physiological requirements of the garden with its look and feel. In the context of art, artists may use negative space to help create or invoke emotion, texture, time, and to shape the image. Gardeners as artists use negative space to do the same, but they also use it to increase interactivity sometimes by creating paths and lines to draw the visitor or viewer of the garden and to create balance for the health of the garden, all while gardening for food or flowers. Maintaining negative weed free space also helps the gardener to control color. Therefore, to a gardener negative space is important. A gardener, seeking to create negative space in the past, might use bark, rocks, sand, or any variety of landscape filler, but weeds may still occur although on a lesser scale.
Because of the importance of the keeping a garden free of weeds for the health and look of the garden, a gardener will spend hours working on weeding or spraying the garden. By creating a thin strip that can be placed along or under the soil in negative space or as a barrier around already existing plants or garden sections, fine-tuned control is created for weed-free areas. Although there are soils and sods for delivering nutrients and/or designed to be harmful to weeds, these soils and sods are difficult to introduce to an already existing garden and therefore do not provide the ease of use nor the amount of control a thin strip can provide in creating negative space. A gardener also typically requires access to the plant roots, and using a harsh weed control chemical may destroy closely planted flower beds. Attempts have been made to solve this persistent problem.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,827 for “Sod or Other Vegetation Having a Root Support Matrix with Beneficial Plant Adjuvants Thereon,” issued on Feb. 8, 2000 to assignee E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, provides for a root support matrix that itself includes a mixture of soil and/or sand and shredded carpet pieces. The matrix has a beneficial plant adjuvant, such as plant nutrients, growth regulators, pesticides, or so forth, disposed on these shredded fabric pieces, which may preferably be in the form of shredded carpet pieces. The beneficial plant adjuvant is initially suspended in an aqueous solution of water and a degradable, slow-release, water-soluble liquid polymer. When dried, the polymer forms a coating on the surface of the shredded carpet pieces and encapsulates the beneficial plant adjuvants. As the coating degrades, the plant adjuvants are released into the soil for uptake by the plants
U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,550 for “Meltblown and Coform Materials Having Application as Seed Beds,” issued on Nov. 22, 1988 to assignee Kimberly-Clark Corporation, provides for a concept that is generally accomplished by providing a seedbed of meltblown material having seeds incorporated therein. In addition to the incorporation of seeds, there is also absorbent material incorporated, such as cellulose fibers, and superabsorbent materials, such as hydrogels. Specifically, the system is composed of a network of air-formed polymer fibers and wood fibers, and as well as seed and superabsorbent materials, which are securely held within the network of polymer and wood fibers. The fibers themselves are in turn mechanically held together. Any suitable additive may be provided with the non-woven meltblown polymer and grass seed composite, such as color, pesticides, or herbicides.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,357,176 for “Soilless Sod,” issued on Mar. 19, 2002 to assignee Mississippi State University, provides for a soil- and grass seed-less sod precursor that contains a non-woven bio-cellulosic fiber mat and grass springs. The sod precursor may be used to produce a soil-free sod, which may in turn be useful for manufacturing athletic fields, golf courses, and laws. The sod precursor specifically features (a) grass springs, and (2) a non-woven mat that includes bio-cellulosic bast fibers, the springs being in contact with an upper surface of the mat, and wherein these bast fibers comprise at least 40% by weight cellulose, and the mat comprises at least 40% by weight of the bio-cellulosic bast fibers, where the sod precursor is soil-free and grass seed-free. In the product, other water-soluble adjuvants may be used in combination with the fertilizer, such as other nutrients, fungicides, algicides, weed killers, and so forth.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,867 for “Landscape Control Fabric with Mucilage,” issued on May 22, 2001 to inventor Joseph L. Gibson, provides for a landscaping control fabric that allows gardeners and landscapers to custom design various outdoor planting projects. It provides a unique landscaping control fabric, pictured at right, that contains plural layers of time-releasing growth-enhancing and control products. Such products, contained on mucilage media on a water-pervious mesh layer, may be selected from a group consisting of fertilizers, fungicides, water saver crystals, vegetation foods, pre-emergent weed killers, and post-emergent weed killers. The landscaping control fabric is constructed such that it may be placed about selected vegetation in accordance with the wishes of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,601,620 for a “Method and Device for Preparing Grass Seed for Planting,” issued on Jun. 24, 1952 to inventor Preston F. Marshall, provides for a mat that incorporates seeds, such as lawn grass seeds, into fibrous material, and weaves the strands into an open mesh fabric. The open mesh fabric allows for uniform distribution of the seeds throughout the length and breadth of the fabric and allows for the fabric to be spread over the area to be seeded. Additionally, it may be retained in place by pegs or a thin cover of earth, or by other suitable means. Specifically, this method of seeding consists of entwining fine seeds in the filling yarns of an open mesh woven fabric at spaced intervals, laying the fabric on the area to be seeded, and securing it in place against removal by natural causes prior to germination of the seeds.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,315,408 for a “Soluble Fibrous Material for Controlling Soil Erosion,” issued on Apr. 25, 1967 to inventor Sidney G. Fisher, provides for a product that prevents or eliminates soil erosion by providing a disintegrable covering over areas subject to soil erosion that have been seeded, providing a protection against erosion for those areas until erosion-preventing vegetation has germinated beneath the protective covering. It further provides a covering in the form of a woven or textile fabric featuring tubular and/or solid yarns in various patterns that have a controlled solubility and rate of disintegration. The covering may additionally constitute a mat of soluble material having holders molded therein, which would in turn be disposed in one or more overlying layers. These layers may require different periods of disintegration time for dissolving and with fertilizers, weed killers, and/or other soil treating agents confined in chambers for release and effectiveness after a predetermined interval has occurred.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,292 for a “Fibrous Mat for Growing Plants,” issued on Jul. 6, 1993 to assignee E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, provides for a plant-growing nonwoven mat that features a layer of hollow synthetic organic fibers having in their lumens water-soluble plant adjuvants. These adjuvants may include plant nutrients, fungicides, algaecides, weed killers, pesticides, and so forth. The system provides slow release of these adjuvants to provide for enhanced and protected plant growth. The hollow polyester fibers may have lumens amounting to 10-40% of the fiber cross-section and may feature within the lumens a water-soluble plant adjuvant having a dry weight amounting to 0.5-15% of the total weight of the hollow fibers.
Lastly, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0019765 for a “Plant Growth Medium,” published on Jan. 22, 2009 by inventors Leonard Kosinski et al., discloses an artificial plant growth medium that may be useful as a substitute for naturally-produced soil in supporting plant growth. The medium includes a cohesive mass of polymer fiberballs, which may be composed of biodegradable and/or non-biodegradable polymer fibers for use in plant cultivation. The medium would preferably provide an optimal balance of water and air to support plant growth. Nutrients, fertilizers, fungicides, weed killers, and so forth, may be included in the plant growth medium. For example, suitable fungicides may include benomyl flusilazole and other triazoles, acylalanines, tridemorph, or morphlines (NUSTAR, RIDOMIL, or CALIXINE).
While the above approaches may be effective in certain situations, there exists a need for a method of weed control for negative spaces which is easy to place and replace in already existing gardens while offering a high level of control and customizability in placement and weed control effectiveness.